ИСТИНА

Globalization is an objective natural-historical process of universalization, formation of structures, connections and relations common to the whole planet of Earth, which involves various spheres of social life. Historically, globalization was preceded by the era of fragmentary events and local social ties, which, upon emergence of state, was followed by the era of regional events and territorially limited international relations. Then came the era of global events and general economic and socio-political interdependence. These developments were triggered by the Great voyages of discovery, when people first fully realised that they were actually living on a globe and began to interact on a really global scale. Since then, globalization has gone through three major stages in its development: real globalization (prior to the 19th century); fundamental globalization (prior to the mid-20th century); multiaspect globalization (from the mid-20th century on). Since then the global problems that were the outcome of globalization have become the focus of public attention. Presently, the global processes on the planet have been supplemented by man’s expansion into space. Theoretical interpretation of globalization and its consequences is the subject of global studies, an interdisciplinary field of scientific knowledge that seeks to integrate efforts of a variety of scholars exploring global processes from the specific standpoints.